From Jude Law To The Traitors: Concha y Toro's Claire Raine

More than 140 years ago, a Chilean winemaker reportedly spread a rumour that the devil guarded his cellar to stop his finest wines from disappearing. Today, that same legend is being retold by Jude Law.

“Over 140 years ago, when his remarkable wines started disappearing, the winery owner of Casillero spread a rumour that his cellar was protected by the devil. The legend of Casillero del Diablo was born,” proclaims Law in The Wine Legend, the latest campaign for Casillero del Diablo.

The campaign introduces the Oscar-nominated actor as the brand's global ambassador and storyteller, bringing a contemporary twist to a tale that has helped define one of Chilean wine producer Viña Concha y Toro's flagship brands.

For Claire Raine, head of brands marketing at Concha y Toro UK, the challenge is to turn that heritage into something that resonates with a new generation of wine drinkers, without losing the mystery that made the brand distinctive in the first place.

It's a strategy that stretches from Hollywood to reality television. Alongside its longstanding association with film through its sponsorship of the Baftas, the business is now tapping into the cultural appeal of The Traitors, with its premium Diablo wine brand partnering with The Traitors: Live Experience in London.

“The objective was to keep the brand feeling current, while introducing the Casillero story to a new audience in a way that was easy to understand and engaging to watch,” explains Raine.

From journalism to Jude

Raine's route into marketing was anything but conventional. Having initially set her sights on journalism, she got her first taste of advertising at Condé Nast, selling classified ads for Vogue, before realising that journalism might not be the career for her.

Instead, she found her way into marketing through a series of personal passions, including film, snacks, and wine.

Her first marketing role was at the now-defunct video rental chain Blockbuster, where writing its film magazine provided a natural bridge from journalism into brand storytelling.

“From there, I’ve never looked back. It honestly doesn’t feel like a real job sometimes. I’ve got friends who are doctors and lawyers with genuinely serious jobs, while I find myself talking about things like The Traitors partnerships or Orlando Bloom,” she laughs.

A decade at United Biscuits and KP Snacks followed, working across brands including KP Nuts, Pom-Bear, Space Raiders, and McCoy's. It was an education in the more playful side of marketing.

“I once filmed an alien autopsy in a bunker on the south coast for Space Raiders and moved McCoy’s away from its Man Crisp positioning to a new proposition around ‘flavour calling’ once we realised that 90s masculinity was dead!"

Although advertising wasn't an obvious career choice when she started out, Raine believes the industry has become more visible to younger people.

“My stepdaughter is at university and a lot of her friends are studying marketing degrees and looking for work experience opportunities. It feels like marketing is a much more recognised and popular career choice than it was when I started out 25 years ago.”

Now at Concha y Toro, she's applying those storytelling instincts to a different category, one where heritage and brand recognition matter, but where relevance cannot be taken for granted.

The decision to bring Jude Law on board reflects both the brand's international ambitions and its connection with cinema. The UK is a particularly important market for Casillero del Diablo, accounting for around 40 per cent of global sales, according to the business. A British actor with international recognition offered a way to connect those two strengths.

“I always felt the impact of having a brand ambassador was too significant to ignore. We knew we needed someone who embodied the brand’s values, had global appeal, a premium image and strong recognition, while also being able to tell the brand story in a fresh, contemporary way,” she explains.

The brief was to make the Casillero legend accessible to modern audiences. Rather than simply lending his face to the campaign, Law would take on the role of storyteller, speaking directly to consumers and bringing the brand's mythology into the present. “Marketing is all about finding those product truths and turning them into compelling stories,” she adds.

A traitorous partnership

If Casillero del Diablo is leaning into its heritage, Diablo is taking a more mischievous route to cultural relevance.

Created as a distinct, premium proposition within Viña Concha y Toro's portfolio, Diablo is designed to appeal to younger, more affluent consumers. Its wines draw on grapes left longer on the vine to develop a richer flavour profile, while its branding takes inspiration from Chile's volcanic landscape.

With a higher price point, striking packaging, and a distinctive bottle design, the brand has built its identity around a rebellious character. It's a personality that makes The Traitors a natural fit.

Diablo's 18-month partnership with The Traitors: Live Experience in London brings the wine brand into a world of deception, suspicion, and theatrical entertainment, where visitors can enjoy a vino while plotting to banish the Faithfuls. The brand has its own bar space on the top of the three-floor atmospheric experience in the heart of London which accurately recreates a week in the world of The Traitors in the space of two hours, banishments, murders, and tasks included.

Developed with Francesca Gamble and her consultancy GTN, the partnership perfectly reflect the devlish image as Diablo plays its designed role in attracting a different audience from the more established Casillero del Diablo brand.

For Raine, the immediate reaction suggests the connection has struck a chord. “The reaction has been incredibly encouraging. We held a press launch a couple of weeks ago and, when you have a room full of journalists immediately saying, ‘What a great partnership, it just makes sense,’ that’s hugely rewarding. As a brand custodian, there’s nothing better than seeing people instantly understand and connect with the idea,” Raines reveals.

With The Traitors attracting an audience of around 15 million, the opportunity is to connect Diablo with an entertainment property that has become part of the wider cultural conversation. And the ambition extends beyond sponsorship.

The first phase focuses on building awareness through The Traitors: Live Experience, supported by in-store competitions across major retailers offering consumers the chance to win tickets. Bringing The Traitors branding into the retail environment also gives Diablo a recognisable hook at the point of purchase.

Looking further ahead, the brand plans to develop the partnership through to 2028, building on future series of The Traitors and Celebrity Traitors with new promotions and experiences.

The wider opportunity lies in turning the programme's popularity into social occasions at home. From themed food and games to the wine on the table, Diablo wants to become part of the rituals surrounding the show.

“What’s particularly exciting is that The Traitors isn’t just a programme people watch, it’s something they want to recreate at home. We want Diablo to be at the heart of those occasions. Whether that’s serving the right food, setting up a game night, creating the atmosphere or choosing the wine, we want to help consumers build the ultimate Traitors experience at home,” continues Raine.

With restrictions on advertising during live broadcasts, the brand is turning to targeted digital activity across social media, YouTube, and out-of-home, reaching people already engaging with The Traitors and the conversations surrounding it.

For Raine, the connection between Jude Law's retelling of a wine legend and Diablo's embrace of reality television comes down to the same principle: finding stories that people want to engage with.

One draws on a century-old myth. The other taps into a contemporary television obsession. Both are attempts to make wine brands part of the entertainment, rather than simply another product competing for attention.

The world of marketing according to Claire Raine

What excites you as a marketer?

I’ve always believed that marketing’s role within a business is to be its excitement engine. We’re the people responsible for creating energy around our brands, sharing our passion for them, and bringing their stories to life for both colleagues and consumers. Of course, it all starts with having a great product. From there, what I enjoy most is uncovering those nuggets of insight and storytelling that genuinely get people excited about a brand. As I mentioned with Casillero del Diablo, finding and amplifying those stories is what makes the job so rewarding. That’s one of the reasons I love marketing. It’s never dull. There’s always something new, interesting or exciting happening. Our job is to take that energy and make it tangible. I particularly enjoy standing up in front of the business, sharing our latest plans and ideas, and seeing people buy into that vision. There’s nothing better than feeling that excitement spread and getting that energy back from the people around you.

What specifically do you look for in an agency partner?

There are a couple of things I look for, but fit is incredibly important. I value personal relationships highly, and I think they’re critical to getting the best out of people and producing great work together. Like most marketing teams today, we’re lean, so I want agency partners to feel like an extension of my leadership team and the wider marketing function. That means it’s important they fit with our culture and understand how our business operates, from category challenges and product considerations to internal dynamics and ways of working.

Just as importantly, we need to be able to have honest conversations. No partnership is completely smooth all the time. Sometimes you need to take a step back in order to move forward, so there has to be openness, trust and a strong working relationship. Of course, it goes without saying that they need to be good at what they do. By the time we’re working together, that’s already a given. What really differentiates a great agency partner is how well they integrate with the business and collaborate with the team.

Which piece of work are you most proud of in your career?

Landing the Trader’s Life Experience partnership was definitely a major career highlight. At the time, we had some resource gaps in the team, and when my general manager asked if I could take it on, I basically said I’d do whatever it took to make it work. It was a real coup.

The other piece of work I’m especially proud of was at VCT Europe with Casillero del Diablo. When I joined, the brand was heavily weighted towards red wine, around 60/40, which didn’t reflect the category. We identified that many consumers simply weren’t aware we produced white wines, despite our strong reputation in reds. To address that, we created a campaign focused specifically on the white wine range. Knowing how obsessed Brits are with the weather, we built the idea around changing temperatures. It was incredibly complex to execute and there were probably a few creatives and agency partners who wanted to shoot me at times, but the result was worth it.

Working with Publicis Poke, we developed the platform Devilishly Refreshing. We created a series of headlines linked to temperatures ranging from 18°C to 40°C, with the creative changing in real time as the weather changed. On a warm day, people might see a message like, Sun’s out, Sauvignon’s out. At 40°C, it became “Hellishly hot, devilishly refreshing”.

Because it responded to live conditions, the campaign felt genuinely relevant and useful. We actually only created the 40°C execution as a joke, and then that summer the UK hit 40 degrees for the first time. The campaign helped transform the brand’s performance. Today, white wines account for 50 per cent of sales, up from 40 per cent, and Sauvignon Blanc has become the biggest SKU in the range. In terms of delivering measurable business results and making a tangible difference through advertising, that’s probably the piece of work I’m most proud of.

Is there a campaign that has made you jealous?

I love the Snickers campaign, You’re Not You When You’re Hungry. First, there’s the brilliance of casting Joan Collins as a diva in a men’s locker room. It’s such an unexpected and memorable execution. But what really makes it stand out is the strength of the insight. The idea that people aren’t themselves when they’re hungry is simple, relatable and instantly understandable. More importantly, it has real longevity. It’s not just a great ad, it’s a great platform that can generate countless executions while staying true to the original idea. For me, it’s a brilliant insight turned into a brilliant campaign. It’s the kind of work that can run and run, and I’d have loved to have been involved in creating it.

What is your process for developing a successful creative brief?

That’s a really good question. I’ve written a lot of briefs over the years, using all sorts of formats and templates. There’s always a new approach to try, or a different agency template to work with. But honestly, I’m a big believer in keeping things simple. I try to keep briefs to a single page, covering the business objectives, brand objectives and, crucially, what success looks like. It’s important that everyone is aligned from the start. What are the KPIs we’re trying to achieve? What business challenge are we trying to solve?

I also place a lot of value on conversation. As I mentioned earlier, I like getting people excited about the challenge. Fran and Lindsay would probably tell you I’ve been known to send over a deck of slides and then barely refer to it. I’d rather sit down and talk through what we’re trying to achieve and why it matters. Once that’s been discussed, it’s great if you can capture everything neatly on a page: the challenge, the objectives and the KPIs. For me, that’s enough. I don’t like to overcomplicate things.

If advertising ended tomorrow - What else would you want to do?

If I’m completely honest, probably something involving wildlife or nature, if that’s not too boring. I’m a massive outdoors person and hate being cooped up inside. I find that if I’ve got a problem to solve or something I’m trying to work out, the best thing I can do is step away from my desk. I’m lucky enough to live in the countryside, so I’ll go for a walk in the woods. Nine times out of ten, I come back 30 minutes later with the answer. There’s something about being outside that I really value. I genuinely enjoy spending time in nature. What that would actually look like as a career, I’m not sure. Maybe I’d run some kind of walking business, or just do something that keeps me outdoors and active.